Archive for the ‘electric gt’ Category

Its cars are blindingly fast, but as a company, Tesla appears to be utterly indifferent to racing. This is perhaps understandable; Tesla is up to its eyeballs in orders for cars and is hard at work on developing the Model 3, as well as the Nevada “Gigafactory.” After all, why bother spending money on a side activity when you can sell every vehicle you can build? But that hasn’t stopped people wanting to take Teslas racing. We’ve seen a privateer Model S run at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, and with any luck an all-Tesla racing series—called Electric GT—will field a grid of 20 Tesla Model S P100Ds later this year.

I’ve been keeping a watchful eye on the Electric GT series for a while now, but over at Motor Sport, Jack Phillips has an interesting piece on the series, including an interview with racing drivers Karun Chandok and Alice Powell, who have actually driven one of the cars.

The world’s first zero-emissions GT (road-car-based) racing championships will begin in 2017, and every single car on the grid will be a Tesla Model S P85+.

The new championships, called the Electric GT World Series, will have a seven-race season in 2017, with races in Europe, America, and Asia. It sounds like the organisers are still trying to nail down which tracks will be used, but the press release specifically mentions Barcelona, Donington (UK), Mugello (Italy), and Estoril (Portugal).

There will be 10 teams, and each team will field two modified Tesla Model S P85+ road cars. The power unit and its control software will remain unchanged from the standard road car (416hp, 601Nm), but changes will be made to the aerodynamics, suspension, and brakes to make it more suitable for racing. The car’s weight will also be reduced (presumably by tearing out unneeded upholstery and the like), and the battery’s cooling system will be improved so that the drivers can keep their foot on the throttle for longer.